Tag: scrapbooking

Anyway, it all started yesterday afternoon. We’d done some shopping in the morning. (Was very surprised and delighted by some sparkly navy goldstone beads for my bracelet by Mr Tree!!).

We had lunch – a very tasty vegetarian rice dish based on a lasagne-type sauce with TVP, garlic-stuffed olives, passata, mushrooms, onions, fresh, chopped garlic, tomato puree, stock, fresh oregano, fresh basil and a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs with rice and a large mixed salad of rocket and spinach leaves, more olives, scallions, tomatoes, cucumber and all drizzled with sweet balsamic vinegar.

I made another bottle of brandy cream liqueur – have got that recipe off to a ‘T’ for our taste now – and it takes just 10 minutes from start to finish. After a tidy up and a bit of bimbling about, what then? I picked up a book I have by Sheila Sturrock called ‘Making Mechanical Cards’ and felt the inspiration to make one she calls the ‘Accordion fold’ card.

It wasn’t as easy as it maybe looks. The basic card itself is the work of minutes. I soon became absorbed in creating swirls and smooshes of swooshes to give the back of the card lots of delicate cuttings and intricacies. Of course, the plain straight edges didn’t go so well with it then. What to do to create interest on the front-folding panels? I know, a butterfly and a flower opposite one another! These were both elements I had in my files and have used before – but if I welded them on and cut them, there would be no pretty bits (the inner cut outs) of the butterfly to display. But if I cut out the inner bits, there would be no ‘proud’ bits to stand out from the folds.

So, I sat down with Illustrator and worked my way through the design issues systematically to solve them. They didn’t take very long and I enjoyed thinking them through. You’re probably thinking it is really easy – in which case maybe I was having a slow day yesterday!

Anyway, I finished off the card by shaping the front panels into curves and backing it with vellum. Then came the envelope (yes, my favourite button-close type!) and some shots to show you the stages it went through. Maybe it will inspire you to have a go or at least check out the book.

I haven’t taken a picture of the envelope but it is the same as the ones for thepop-up teapot, elephant and teapot-shaped cards (though resized appropriately). The file includes the flower and butterfly toppers so you would have them to use on other projects. The butterfly is quite lovely – I designed it a while ago now but it is still one of my all-time favourites.

Well, hello to the lot of yers! Rushing to get ready for Easter.. not really. Am being a bit facetious there. Can’t believe the Christmas displays and stock in the big shops. Seems like the retail year is Christmas with a couple of months off then Christmas again.

I can’t think what I’ve been up to for the last week, have just been busy with lots of things. Life gets us all like that, doesn’t it? Buzz around like a bluebottle with its pants on fire, doing what? Routine stuff mainly. I did go shopping though… now that the school shoes and uniform stampedes are over the shops have quietened down a bit.

I had a mooch about and bought Zumba and Dance 2 for the Wii so am officially Fatty Dance Pants! Haven’t got very far, in fact, am still mastering the complexities of the Single Single Pump Pump but am getting there. Was surprised to find that the step routine that I use with the Wii Fitness DVD has suddenly upped its game! There I was, ready to do the usual, and very familiar, routine but it was different… faster with diagonal stepping – and clapping! I don’t remember any cosmic ordering going on for that little lot or aspiring to the weirdness of those unnatural legs-akimbo movements (they are very unnatural the way I perform them). Grudgingly, I worked through it and am getting the idea now – with the support of the Mii crowds that have filled an entire stadium to see me. Who are they? Where do they come from? Weirdos.

Talking of Dance… I never get to see programmes when they are current. Don’t really watch much TV but occasionally have a look and catch something that’s being repeated and so it was I caught Pineapple Dance Studios. Just LOVE Louie! He makes me laugh and laugh. And I love the dancing. Don’t know what it is about gay men but I love Dale Winton as well. Guess the only other programme that I happened upon that I then recorded as many other episodes as I could and then bought on DVD was Boston Legal. William Shatner is so funny.

I like documentaries a lot and watched Horizon reporting on research to collect data about the Earth’s core… they mentioned that a reversal of the earth’s magnetic poles could have dramatic impact if it happens – again – as scientists believe that it has happened more than once in the lifetime of our planet.

After, I turned over and found myself engaged in a programme about the Doomsday prophesies of the Mayans. They predict the end of the world on the 21st December 2012. These prophesies, encoded in the language of pictograms and glyphs, were being scrutinised in the light of modern scientific knowledge.

One of the theories proposed to explain the prophecy was a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles. I think they were reading the Jovian Booglehoop reversed-pole food repulsion-throw-across-the-table function at the time (Red Dwarf – Legion). Thought ‘Ooer! That’s a bit of a coincidence and not a very pleasant one’ but it does mean that we won’t have to battle through the Christmas rush and spend fortunes on shopping next year. Every shroud has a silver lining!

Have a little freebie for you today – three pretty frames in SVG /GSD format.

Me and the tree

Hello there!

This is a blog of many things and reflects my interests as they come and go. You’ll find Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials along with embroidery, sewing, crochet, baking and papercutting. It’s fairly eclectic.

The tree has long roots in Ireland in a garden full of flowers with lots of birds, bees and butterflies.

I live in a very happy home with Mr Tree and our two kitty girls, Gracie and Jess.